Andrew Bremer, a Placentia resident and police officer in Orange, speaks to council members at Placentia City Hall on Tuesday against allowing medical marijuana businesses in town.

Jars of cannabis are kept in locking steel cases at the Laguna Woods home of Lonnie Painter. With no dispensaries open, the senior community operates a collective to give seniors access to medical marijuana.

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Placentia council members listen to consultant David McPherson discuss allowing medical marijuana businesses in town, including the first regulated growing operation in Orange County.

Marijuana-infused candy for sale at 420 Central in Santa Ana, which is the only city in Orange County that has licensed dispensaries open for businesses.

Ryan Saller assists Heather Boucher of Huntington Beach in selecting edible pot at 420 Central in Santa Ana, which is the only city in Orange County that has licensed dispensaries open for businesses.

Orange County's restrictive marijuana environment might look quite different after Nov. 8. As Californians prepare to vote on legalizing recreational marijuana, residents of several local cities will decide whether to regulate and tax medical marijuana businesses for the first time.

Placentia is hardly alone. Voters in Costa Mesa and Laguna Beach will consider initiatives that could double the number of cities in the county that permit pot shops. While efforts there started with citizens, leaders in both cities have seen the writing on the wall and are looking to put their own competing plans on the November ballot.

Garden Grove also is holding workshops to get public input on the idea of allowing medical pot dispensaries and other types of marijuana businesses.

And still more could be coming. Residents and governments have until Aug. 12 to submit initiatives for this year’s fall ballot.

The city proposals are happening independently of the upcoming state vote on legalizing recreational pot. Even if a majority of voters in November agree to let all Californians over 21 use marijuana, every city in the state will still have a right to decide whether to allow dispensaries, grow sites, delivery services and other cannabis-related businesses in their borders.

Instead, the city-by-city push to establish clear pot rules seems to be a response to new regulations on medical marijuana signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in October. The Medical Marijuana Regulation and Safety Act, which takes full effect in 2018, creates a system to license, tax and regulate cannabis for the first time in the 20 years since Californians legalized the plant for medicinal use.

Many in the cannabis industry say the state law is why local leaders are suddenly open to their business, often reversing longstanding opposition.

“There has definitely been a shift over the past year,” said attorney Randall Longwith, who helped qualify one of Costa Mesa’s citizen initiatives.

David Weidenbach, who owns the Costa Mesa cannabis packaging company Collective Supply and helped draft the state law as a board member for the California Cannabis Industry Association, said the new law provides a framework that cities can use as they craft local pot ordinances.

“Now that there is a statewide regulatory system, local municipalities are much more willing to discuss how to properly bring cannabis into their community.”

PLACENTIA

The new state regulations prompted officials in Placentia to reverse a ban on dispensaries that’s been on the books since 2008.

A split City Council this week approved a law that will allow one of each type of marijuana business that can be licensed under the new state regulations. That includes one dispensary, one cultivation site, one manufacturing site, one testing lab, one transportation service between businesses and one delivery service forconsumers.

The law will also allow the city to add another pot shop and cultivation site, plus let the manufacturing business grow its own supply, after 18 months.

The 3-2 vote came after hours of discussion from a divided council and public.

“I am a five-year breast cancer survivor,” resident Linda Lucio said. “I would hope that if I had to resort to something such as an edible medical marijuana product, it would be accessible to me in my hometown.”

Other residents spoke out against allowing pot businesses to open in Placentia.

“I have witnessed firsthand the dangers of marijuana,” said Andrew Bremer, a police officer in Orange who has four young children and has lived in the city for eight years. “We do not need to bring this problem into our wonderful little city.”

City Administrator Damien Arrula said the ordinance includes safety provisions such as background checks on employees, security systems at shops and limited operating hours. And the City Council will choose which applicants get a license in each category after a public hearing.

Placentia has faced insolvency for years, after a failed transportation project and the recession drained its reserves.

Things got worse in April, when its No. 2 finance officer was arrested on charges of embezzling $4.3 million from the city. Now Placentia is projecting a deficit of more than $6 million in the coming fiscal year.

It’s unclear how much the pot industry might help.

So far, the city’s marijuana ordinance calls only for establishing fees for businesses that would cover the cost of administering the new program. Arrula said they haven’t yet decided if they want to also tax pot sellers, which would require a proposal on the ballot so residents can weigh in.

GARDEN GROVE

Mayor Bao Nguyen and Councilman Phat Bui are leading a task force that’s studying options for allowing medical marijuana dispensaries and other related businesses to open in Garden Grove.

Nguyen said “everything is on the table,” with ongoing talks about also allowing cultivation and delivery services.

The city banned marijuana dispensaries in 2008. Leaders have discussed regulations in the past, but the ban has never been lifted.

Still, Nguyen said, there are 30 or so unlicensed dispensaries operating in Garden Grove. So the City Council voted, 4-1, a couple months back to consider regulating them so they can at least reap some benefits from the businesses.

The task force is looking at how pot shops operate in other cities and gathering input from residents, businesses and industry members through a series of workshops this month.

The City Council has asked staff to incorporate feedback from the workshops into a ballot measure that includes a tax on dispensaries, which would have to go before voters. A draft of that measure is due back by the first week of June.

COSTA MESA

Costa Mesa cannabis activists qualified two similar initiatives for the ballot two years ago. This fall, they’ll finally get to put their proposals before voters, though they’ll likely face stiff competition from a city-backed measure that’s still in the works.

One resident-driven initiative would allow up to eight dispensaries in the city, while the other sets the limit at four. Both would tax sales at 6 percent on top of the city’s existing sales tax.

The tax rate and other details of the city measure are still being worked out. However, initial plans would let zoning ordinances and free-market competition dictate the number of dispensaries by relegating them to a couple parts of the city.

With that area limited to west of Harbor Boulevard and north of the 405, Longwith argued it would amount to another “de facto ban” by the city.

“In reality, it’s not going to give any access at all,” he said, noting there is limited property available in the proposed business zone.

Longwith knows there will be weight behind whatever initiative the city settles on. So he said he’s hopeful the city will back an option that will allow dispensaries to set up shop.

Residents will be able to vote on all three initiatives on Nov. 8. If more than one passes, whichever proposal gets the most votes will become law.

LAGUNA BEACH

Laguna Beach residents also have gathered enough support to get an initiative on the November ballot to allow the first licensed medical marijuana dispensaries in a city that’s banned all pot shops since 2009.

The initiative – proposed by resident Elizabeth Toomey and her nephew Corey Aufhammer – would permit one medical marijuana dispensary for every 10,000 residents. That would mean two shops at the city’s current population of 23,341.

The proposal states dispensaries couldn’t be near schools or each other. They’d be chosen through a lottery system, similar to the one used in Santa Ana, but with preference given to existing unlicensed dispensaries. And if recreational use is legalized, they could start selling to all adult customers.

Calling that initiative “sloppy,” the City Council voted to put a competing, city-backed measure on the November ballot.

The Laguna Beach Police Department is recommending the city allow only one dispensary, with more limited options on where it could locate. Police also recommend taxing pot shop sales, plus trading the lottery system for a competitive process with an evaluation committee that would choose which shop would be allowed to open.

The city also might float a third initiative, a rule that would would reinforce the city’s current ban on all dispensaries.

Full drafts of the city’s proposed measures are slated to come back to the council for discussion in June.

Brooke Edwards Staggs is a general assignment reporter with a focus on covering the politics, business, health and culture of cannabis. Journalism has led Staggs to a manhunt in Las Vegas, a zero gravity flight over Queens and a fishing village in Ghana. The Big Bear native is addicted to education. She earned her bachelors degree in English from California Baptist University, then got her master's in education as she taught high school English in the Inland Empire. After four years in the classroom, she left in 2006 to be a student again herself, earning a masters degree in journalism from New York University while interning and freelancing for a variety of publications. She sees journalism as another form of teaching, helping readers make informed decisions and better understand the world around them. Staggs spent five years as a staff writer then city editor at the Daily Press in Victorville. She won several awards for her work there, including best breaking news story from the California Newspaper Publishers Association for her tale of a teen who shot his father in a hunting accident. She joined the Orange County Register in January 2013, covering several south Orange County communities and the city of Tustin before taking on the marijuana beat in February 2016. On occasion, she also teaches community college and ghostwrites nonfiction books. Staggs loves dancing and new adventures. She hates water slides and injustice. If she doesn’t get right back to you, there’s a good chance she’s sitting with her DJ husband on a plane or train or boat destined for somewhere – anywhere – they’ve never been.